Emma Utgès is the director of the Le Guignol theater in Lyon and the MA company, located near Saint-Paul station. A theater originally created by the descendants of Guignol’s father, Laurent Mourguet © Antoine Merlet
–
If everyone knows the hat and stick puppet with his clever and sweet look, few know who the character’s father is: Laurent Mourguet. Lyon Capitale retraces its history with its share of legends. A story that continues to this day in Lyon.
A centuries-old ambassador of Lyon culture, Guignol is Lyon and Lyon is Guignol, throughout France and around the world. Retracing the story of this mythical puppet is entering the sacred temple of what touches the soul of the city. It’s discovering the guardians of the Lyon dialect, the heirs to the traditions of the puppet show. It is therefore with great humility that we will retrace the origins of the most famous of our emblems. In fact, today there are Guignol theaters everywhere: if it gave its name to several museums and stages in Lyon, it is also present from Paris to the United States in Kentucky or even in Rio de Janeiro. in Brazil. In a word: a star. But the extraordinary destiny of the puppet was not written in advance. The road has been long and first and foremost for his spiritual father, Laurent Mourguet.
Guignol’s father: Laurent Mourguet
Not much is known about this man. Son of silk, he did not stay long in silk and chained trades. The French specialist in Guignol, the normalien Paul Fournel, elucidates in his book Faire Guignol: “According to official papers, in 1772, Laurent Mourguet was a ‘silk worker’; in 1773, he was a showman; in 1794, ‘merchant of slippers’, in 1795 and 97, simply ‘merchant’; in 1778, 1800, 1803, he was a ‘dentist’; in 1804 he is an ‘artist’; in 1809, ‘dramatic artist’. Curiously, in 1822 he was a ‘cloth merchant’, which he was no longer in 1825 and 27 when he was a ‘machinist’ before being, in 1838, ‘associated with the Caveau des Célestins’. In 1841, in Vienna, he was a ‘day laborer’ and in 1844, his death certificate simply read ‘Laurent Mourguet, saltimbanque’ (…) The poor do not remember.“So much for the historical facts. The legend remains.
Before Guignol: Polichinelle and Gnafron
A single puppet can play several characters after a visit to the workshop for a new haircut or a different make-up. © Antoine Merlet
The legend, precisely, says that the man, illiterate, would have started the puppets in 1797 with Polichinelle, the character of the commedia dell’arte. The goal ? Attract the curious and make people forget the pain inherent in their other role: tooth puller. A job on the road that will never have made him leave the Lyon region. A job plunging him into the whimsical universe of fairgrounds and fashionistas. Before that, the Revolution destabilizing the economy, he could not have kept his job as a canut worker. But on the strength of his small local success, he embarked on puppet shows with one of his friends, Thomas Landré, also called “Father Thomas‘, who also accompanied him on the violin. A merry fellow who will later inspire the character of Gnafron, born before Guignol, and who will be his best friend. Laurent Mourguet then held his first professional shows in 1804 in the gardens of Petit-Tivoli – which no longer exists today – in the Brotteaux plain. According to Paul Fournel, the content mixes comical themes, with its share of saucy, misunderstandings and satires of current events. From his beginnings, the artist in the making took the side of the common people prey to the misfortunes caused by the rich, the institutions and the authorities.
–
–
